‘Welcome Back, Kotter’ Was the Original School Sitcom Success

The life of a teacher is one of hard work, low pay and little respect — a syllabus with all the elements of sitcom success. The current favorite school-set comedy, Abbott Elementary, was awarded three Emmys in 2022 for its first season (including in the writing category for creator Quinta Brunson and for supporting actress Sheryl Lee Ralph, who memorably broke into song on the Emmys stage) and nabbed another Emmy in 2023 for a total of four wins and 24 noms.

Fifty years ago, Welcome Back, Kotter was a progenitor of the form. It ran for four seasons spanning 1975-79 and followed high school teacher Gabe Kotter (Gabe Kaplan) as he formed an unlikely bond with his class of students, known as the Sweathogs: Vinnie Barbarino (John Travolta), Arnold Horshack (Ron Palillo), Freddie “Boom Boom” Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) and Juan Epstein (Robert Hegyes) among them. The cast began as relative unknowns, but by the time the third season aired in 1977, executive producer Jimmie Komack told The Hollywood Reporter, “We call it Five Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. That’s how crazy things [got].” He added, “I gotta tell you, come Tuesday night and those guys perform their heads off. And with all their complaining — ‘I’m not showing up’; ‘I want a new dressing room’; ‘Where’s my bodyguard?’; ‘I want a cook.’ Cook? COOK! When I met these guys they weren’t even eating.”

Kotter never earned Emmy gold, but it was nominated four times: for video tape editing and outstanding comedy series in its first season; for art direction in season three; and for individual achievement in creative technical crafts in season four. That last was for Dick Wilson’s sound editing in the episode “Barbarino’s Baby,” where Travolta’s character is forced to deliver a baby when he gets stuck in a broken hospital elevator with a pregnant woman. Maybe Barbarino wasn’t the quickest in the class, but high-achieving Travolta was already a bona fide movie star with Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978) under his belt before he graduated from Kotter in 1979.

This story first appeared in a May stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.